Page 94 - Racing Toward Judgement

1. Redemption Through Judgment
The law of human history is that God's judgment is a
necessary part of redemption. It is God's recovery plan
for fallen nature. It is His way of weaning men from
their sins. How can mankind ever be restored to God?
When His threats are ignored, His mercy flaunted, His
promises rejected—judgment is inevitable.
God always purifies through persecution. Judgment
purges the wounds of society of poison and inoculates
for the infections. God starves sinners so they would be-
gin to hunger after Him. He makes men run in terror,
hoping they will run right into His open arms.
Judgment is God grinding men down to size. He does
not judge men only to appease the righteous indignation
of some Christmas who yearn to see retribution. While
the Christian hopes to see judgment against sin right
now, God said, "My long-suffering endures to all genera-
tions." God is disciplined in judgment.

Your fathers would not listen to this message.
They turned stubbornly away and put their fingers
in their ears to keep from hearing me. They hard-
ened their hearts like flint, afraid to hear the
words that God, the Lord of Hosts, commanded
them—the laws he had revealed to them by his
Spirit through the early prophets. That is why such
great wrath came down on them from God. I
called but they refused to listen, so when they
cried to me, I turned away.
(Zechariah 7:11-13 La)

2. Shall I Pray for America Now?
To those who pray that God will spare America from
divine judgment, I say—God will most likely answer
through judgment! He will save America through judg-
ment and will "remove the stumbling blocks": "I will
consume man and beast . . . and the stumblingblocks
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